Basic Data

This part of the window allows to introduce basic parameters of the soils - unit weight, angle of internal friction and cohesion. The particular values are obtained from geotechnical survey or from laboratory experiments. If these data are not available, it is possible to exploit built-in soils database, which contains values of selected characteristics of soils. The characteristics of rocks are not listed in the built-in database, these parameters must be defined manually. Approximate parameters of rocks are presented in the theoretical section.

Either effective or total parameters of the angle of internal friction and cohesion are specified depending on the settings in the "Stress analysis" combo list. Whether to use effective or total parameters depends primarily on the type of soil and load, structure duration and water conditions.

For effective stress, it is further needed to specify the angle of internal friction between the soil and the structure, which depends on the structure material and type of soil. Possible values of this parameter are listed in the table of recommended values.

For total stress, it is further needed to specify the adhesion of soil to the structure facea.

The associated theory is described in detail in the chapter "Earth pressures".